Running City Budapest 2017

Routes

Historical notes

03 Pedestrian walkway in Margitsziget park: 47.518954, 19.043781 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps); Memorial stone by a tree between the musical fountain and children's
playground; Kind of sport indicated on the stone; Penthatlon; Historical background
You can't have a car ride on this island - it's closed for the private transport. But you cant still use a bus or any of the eco-friendly bikes and electrocars here. The Margit island is a little archipelago consisting of three little islands. It was even drifting downstream. Now it's not: the northern side of the island was strenghteden. And it also was raised on 2 meteres not to let the floods bog it up. It's modern name Margaret's Island got in XIV сentury after the Dominican order monastery built here by the king Bela IV for her daughter Margareth. The Turks in 1541 occupied the monastery and used the buiding for the Pasha's Harem. You can still see what's rest from the walls and the church not far away from another beautiflu landmark, the Margaret Island Water Tower. In 1796 József Habsburg, a fan of parks and gardens, arranged here a cozy villa for his young russian wife Alexandra Pavlovna. To take care of the island's plants, trees and flowers he invited a man from Schönbrunn gardeners' dynasty. The first brahcny plane-trees you see on the island were planted here in József 's period. Margaret Island with it's rose and Japanese gardens, thermal baths and the biggest beach in the city is one the best places in Budapest to spend some hours or even a weekend.
13 Szent István park: 47.519132, 19.050947 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps); Monument To Raoul Wallenberg; How many human ears are there on the sculpture and the pedestal altogether?; 3; Historical background
Here stands a monument to Raoul Wallenber — a legend man, who saved thousands of hungarian jews in 1944th. Born in a wealthy Swedish aristocratic family, Raoul got the superioir edication, he spoke several european languages and travelled the world. HIs powerfull granddad wanted him to be a banker or a business person, but Raoul didn't see himself as a moneymaker. During the World War II he emerged in Budapest with the mission to save lives of jewish people. He was always surrounded by wide range of of military men of all sorts, spies, Nazis, politicians and opportunists, dealers and fortune hunters. To accomplish his mission he used all means from bribery to pseudo-official Sweden documents for people from ghetto. He even bought and rented up to 30 houses in Budapest and declared them an Embassy compounds so that jews could live there. In 1945 he disappeared somewhere in Moscow prisons and believed to be killed in 1947th.
14 Práter utca, 11: 47.48667, 19.072282 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps); Monument to the characters of “The Paul Street Boys” (“A Pál utcai fiúk”); Year of the monument installation; 2007; Historical background
First published in 1906, “The Paul Street Boys” by Ferenc Molnar became one of the most popular Hungarian children's books in the world. There is probably no Hungarian who has not read it. One of the novel's film adaptations was nominated for the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film in 1969.
18 Papp László tér: 47.524406, 19.067518 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps); Monument to an athlete; Maximum year of those mentioned on the monument; 2016; Historical background
Papp Laslo was once a downtown boy who used his fists only in backyard boxing championships. But after WWII Papp started as a trainee on the Optical Instruments Plant, where was an amateur boxing group. There strated his glorious path to the Olympics. Papp was an Olympic gold medalist three times, at middleweight in London in 1948, then as a light middleweight in Helsinki in 1952 and in Melbourne in 1956. Papp also was the European middleweight champion as a middleweight in 1949 at Oslo and at light middleweight at Milan 1951. He scored 55 first round knockouts as an amateur. His only dream was to win the World Championship as a professional boxer. But the dream stayed unaccomplished, the Communists didn't let him to fight as a professional for the Hungary on the championships.
24 Teréz krt., 55: 47.510433, 19.057095 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps); Western Railway Station (Nyugati pályaudvar). Support to the right from the door of MÁV Nosztalgia office; City name on the plaque at the bottom of the support; Historical background
This station was built by Eiffel & Cie, a company not known at that time and owned by two young engineers, Gustave Eiffel and Théophile Seyrig. Despite the established myth, Eiffel himself was not involved in the construction of the Budapest Nyugati rail terminal: it was designed by Seyrig and August de Serres.
27 The Timewheel (Időkerék): 47.512684, 19.080327 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps); Plaques with descriptions of the monument to the right of the hourglass. Quote used in the description; Author of the quote; Agoston; Historical background
The Timewheel (Időkerék) is one of the world's largest hourglasses: sand trickles down from the top to the bottom through a small opening in the glass. At the end of each year the wheel is supposed to be turned 180 degrees, which must be done by manual power using steel cables and it takes roughly 45 minutes. Since 2011 (circa) The Timewheel is broken.
30 Underground section of Fővám tér transfer hub: 47.485849, 19.057846 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps); Board with a legend to exit D; Transport number with a letter shown on the board; 979 / 979A; Historical background
The Fővám tér (The Customs Sqaure) is well-known for the gorgeous Budapests' Market. The building had a truly complicated bio. There was a fire during construction, there were the bombings of the World War II as well, and the reconstruction it the 90ies, and we can't tell you what was the most imporntant and contributed mostly to the building's look. This huge and shiny mastodont has several levels, with fruits and veggies, with refrigiratios filled with meat and fish, and with cafes and traditional hungarian souvenirs. The other significant landmark here is the M4 station. The Fővám tér and the Szent Gellért tér stations created by Spora Architects got several designer awards for their modern look and symbolic post-modern meaning. The architects call these stations the Ungergroung City Social Utopia.
37 Entrance to Vörösmarty utca metro station (direction from the city centre): 47.507287, 19.066612 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps); Bench near the metro entrance; Musical instrument; Piano; Historical background
Opposite this checkpoint is one of the most famous museums of Budapest — the House of Terror (Terror Háza), the former Hungarian State Security Service. It contains exhibits related to the fascist and communist regimes in 20th-century Hungary and is also a memorial to their victims.
41 Király utca, 15: 47.499344, 19.058711 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps); Plaque with tenants’ names; Copy the name of the tenant from flat No. 21; csukai józsef; Historical background
Look though the square peephole in the door. The stone wall in the end of the courtyard is the memorial Ghetto Wall. The Budapest ghetto was created on November 29, 1944, and soon it was surrounded by a high stone wall. The last remaining section of the ghetto wall was demolished here in 2006 but two years later it was restored as а memorial.
51 Szabó Ervin tér: 47.489458, 19.063919 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps); Green second-hand book cart on the square; Cart number; 5; Historical background
A fashionable building near to a green cart with second-hand books is the Erwin Sabo Central Library (Szabó Ervin tér 1). Once upon a time it was the well-known and loved by all the Budapest’s high society palace of the Wenkhein family. The marriage of Christina and Fridesh Wenkheim was scandalous. They were cousins and truly in love with each other, but all their relatives were against this misalliance. Christina was the heiress of a huge fortune and raised like a princess, but for everyone she was only a сhild of sin. Her dad was a Count, but her mother was a servant’s daughter. Like in fairytales, Christina and Arthur married against all the odds, and later all those people who were against this marriage became frequenters of their dancing routes in this building by architect Arthur Meinig. Now the Central Library is one of the best places in the city to spend some hours reading a book and having a cup of coffee in an outstanding, fairytale, almost Disney-ish environment.
53 Munkácsy Mihály utсa, 23: 47.514149, 19.071577 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps); Oval plaque on the wall to the right of the entrance to the building; Which party is mentioned on the plaque?; magyar demokrata fórum, democratic party; Historical background
This nice art nouveau building faces on the Epreskert Art Colony. The hungarian name, Epreskerti művésztelep, can't be more romantic. It means "Mulberry Garden". It was an artists' colony in Budapest in the last decades of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. The colony occupied an oblong shaped block bounded by Bajza, Lendvay, Epreskert (after 1900 Munkácsy Mihály) and Kmety Street. The Epreskert was a municipal garden of mulberry trees on the outskirts of Pest which remained in agricultural usage until the 1870s. After the opening of Andrássy Avenue in 1871 the commercial value of the plot went up and urbanization began. In 1879 the municipal council donated a parcel on the corner of Bajza and Lendvay Streets to Adolf Huszár, a renowned sculptor who worked on prestigious municipal projects but was in need of a suitable workshop. Two years later Huszár built an atelier in fashionable Neo-Renaissance style and became the first artist to live there. In 1886 the block was divided into ten lots for ateliers. The Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts (now Hungarian University of Fine Arts) established its campus on the other side of Kmety Street. Normally now only the art students have access to this area. If you happen to be in Budapest during the Museum or Art night, you shoud use the rare opportunity to take a romantic walk among the high old trees and ateliers, and see the nicely renovated Calvary building from the 18th century and the remaining stones of the Church of Mary. For a really unusual sight these days, look for the Lenin statue on the Bajza utca side of the garden.
54 The Eastern Railroad Station (Keleti palyaudvar), Thököly utca entrance: 47.501315, 19.084969 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps); Mural in the entrance hall of the station by Thököly utca entrance; One of the characters of the mural is holding an object in her hand that will remind you of a prism. What is she holding in the other hand?; The Bridge; Historical background
Murals of the Eastern Station was painted by two artists, Károly Lotz and Than Mór. Lotz is a famous Hungarian artist of German descent. You can find his frescoes in the interiors of all the most important buildings of Budapest - the Opera and Parliament, the basilica of St. Stephen and the Ethnographic Museum. Tan More was more engaged in easel painting. His most famous work is "The Battle of Mohach" (it is interesting that it was painted when he lived in Paris).
55 Rózsák tere. Saint Elizabeth Church (Árpád-házi Szent Erzsébet-plébániatemplom): 47.500782, 19.076402 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps); Church garden. Small memorial plaque on the ground behind the church; Year in the first line of the inscription; 1956; Historical background
St. Elisabeth Church in Rózsák tere was built against the design of Imre Steindl, the chief architect of the Hungarian Parliament. The stained glass windows were made by the famous artist Miksa Róth, while all the ironwork is the creation of Gyula Jungfer, and the pyrogranite decorative elements were manufactured in the famous Vilmos Zsolnay’s factory.
58 Intersection of Szif and Nemeth Laszlo: 47.507799, 19.070762 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps); Crossed-out and current address plaques on the building; Redraw or write down the name of the sign which distinguishes the house numbers on the plaques; / или стрелочка; Historical background
There is a local law obliging keeping old adrress plates on the buildings for at least two years after the renaming. The old ones should be crossed with a thick red line. We, city guests and explorers, can only thank the city managers for beeing that kind!
59 Dembinszky utca, 12: 47.505954, 19.076622 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps); Mirror in one of the showcases overlooking Ligetváros Remiz Sétány; Text NOT inverted in the mirror; Try a new view; Historical background
Ligetváros Remiz Sétány is a former tram depot. It was built in 1897 to serve the tram line connecting the Keleti station with the Városliget. After the World War II, the tramway rails were removed and this place became a trolleybus depot. In the nineties, it was closed, and the vacant premises were sold to a private developer.
63 Vörösmarty tér metro station: 47.496676, 19.050398 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps); Doors on the platform where trains depart from; Copy the door numbers in descending order; Historical background
While traveling on the M1 line, the oldest in Budapest, you can imagine yourself in the past. Almost everything here remained untouched. Well, they changes the railing and some other staff in carriages. The line is as straight as an arrow and on the final stops (like here) you can even see the train making a U turn. By the way there is another typical "runcity point" nearby. The Retro Transformer Kiosk stands right near the entrance to the undergound station and with some luck you'll find it in the middle of all this Christmas hype on the square.
102 Tatai utca, 95: 47.541377, 19.095072 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps); Set of wheels at the gate; Year on the red part of the wheels; 1942; Historical background
No, you won't be able today to go inside and see all those beautiful locomotives, carriages and depots with turning platforms. No rides on railcars as well, sorry. The Railroad Park, one of the best in Europe, will be ready to welcome you only in April. For now let's settle for a sneak peak on the giant park territory and the gloomy water tower.